Southeastern announces fall commencement speaker

Dr. Cordell Adams will be the guest speaker at Southeastern Oklahoma State University’s fall commencement on Dec. 15.

Adams, is a board-certified practicing ophthalmologist at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, with a subspecialty in glaucoma. He has been in private practice for 17 years, and is a three-time recipient of the Physician Recognition Award from the American Medical Association.

In 2009, Adams was honored as a Distinguished Alumnus of Southeastern.

At Southeastern, he was a Presidential Honors Scholarship recipient and earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry. He was involved in numerous campus activities, including Student Senate, the American Chemical Society, the University Players, and as an undergraduate research participant in Minority Biomedical Sciences. Adams graduated Summa Cum Laude.

Adams has also embarked on a literary career, and his first novel, "Light Bread," was ranked No. 1 for local paperback fiction in the Dallas Morning News, in which he pays homage to his maternal grandmother's wit, wisdom and insatiable curiosity.

His father, the late Claude Adams, was an assistant professor of English at Southeastern.